Implode-o-Meter News - ‘It's unbearable': in ever-hotter US cities, air conditioning is no longer enough

``Storm-battered homes like Gellot's lack proper insulation. Power grids stumble and fail during periods of high demand. And many cooling systems are simply not powerful enough to contend with the worsening heat. Some experts have begun to warn of the looming threat of a "Heat Katrina" -- a mass-casualty heat event. A study published last year that modeled heatwave-related blackouts in different cities showed that a two-day blackout in Phoenix could lead to the deaths of more than 12,000 people.
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"The types of [cooling] systems that we sold 10 years ago are not able to keep up with the weather we have," said Simi Hoque, an architectural engineer at Drexel University who studies how building design contributes to indoor heat.

As temperatures climb, air conditioners -- which work by sucking in indoor air, heating it via compressor and then dumping that heat outside -- must work exponentially harder. According to Texas A&M climate scientist Andrew Dessler, keeping a home steady at 75F requires about 30% more power when outside temperatures creep from 95F to 98F.

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‘It's unbearable': in ever-hotter US cities, air conditioning is no longer enough